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PAINTING LESSONS
PAINTING
LESSON
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MONARCH
PASS
RETREAT
Oil
on Belgium Linen- © Kay Witherspoon
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#1 |
#2 |
#3 |
#4 |
#3
#5 |
#6 |
#7 |
#8 FINAL: pre-varnish |
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This landscape is selected
from a series of photos I took off I-285 between Denver and Gunnison,
Colorado. The series includes a living beaver dam and surrounding
meadowlands . The creek itself was full of brook trout and there
were ample signs of deer and coyote in the area.
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#1
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I begin my studio paintings by drawing the basic shapes, then
blocking in the under-painting with a thin layer of paint. At this
stage, I perceived the juncture of the center aspen and the downed, angled
aspen stopped the eye from being drawn into the painting, so I eliminated
it by raising it to begin at the vanishing point in STEP THREE. |
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#2
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I utilize soft
bristle brushes
(Jerry's Artarama - Ebony Splendor, filberts)
for smooth
brushstrokes and easy layering of pigment. I layer my pigments from
dark and/or intense colors to lighter tones. By using about 6
brushes, I rarely clean a brush until the day is over. I find I can
get more realistic half-tones by mixing my colors as I go with brushes
that already have that specific color range (yellows, browns, greens,
etc.) on the bristles. This technique allows for a greater variety
of mid-tones and facilitates building perspective and atmosphere. |
#3
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#4
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The sunlight is
backlighting the trees and thus flows "down-slope" to the creek bed.
Shadows are crucial to a unified and balanced composition, as are strong
lines and angles - like the standing and fallen tree trunks and
tree-limbs. Since the rocks are mostly circular, carved by time and
water action, I've chosen to balance them with strong vertical tree limbs
at the top. This helps to "pull" the eyes upwards with a pleasing push and
pull tension.
The path-like shadows help to balance the
darkly shadowed creek-bed, create an "alternating rhythm" of light and
dark, and lead the eye around the composition.
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#5
#6 |
#7 |
Here the grasses are far too chartreuse (yellow
green) and fight for dominance with the foreground. There
should be one dominant focal point (identified as such by contrasts,
detail, intense or pure color, position, etc),
one secondary point of interest, and then a weaker third area to balance
the lines, weight, color, etc. I also
removed the angled branch that was half and the water and half lying on
top of the large boulder in the creek.
It was far too distracting with so many lines and angles. In the
final layer of paint, the pile of rocks in the
bottom right draw attention first (detail, bright hue, dark shadow), while
the grassy embankment and angular
logs beckon the eye up and into the painting. (How a painting is
lit, of course, can make a difference in the
appearance of a painting as well.)
Kay Witherspoon |
NAME
THE PAINTING CONTEST: Submissions
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